WHAT DOES AMERICA THINK? 585CRITICAL THINKING|DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
- The differences in survey response by race were striking. Why do you think that Black respon-
dents were dramatically more likely to have a great deal of confidence in the education system
than were White respondents, particularly because Black students have generally and histori-
cally been underserved by the educational system? - Conversely, why do you think White respondents were so pessimistic about the educational
system?
3 Go to this website to look further at the data. You can run your own statistics and crosstabs
here: http://sda.berkeley.edu/cgi-bin/hsda?harcsda+gss04
REFERENCES:Davis, James A., Tom W. Smith, and Peter V. Marsden. General Social Surveys
1972–2004: [Cumulative file] [Computer file]. 2nd ICPSR version. Chicago, IL: National Opinion Research Cen-
ter [producer], 2005; Storrs, CT: Roper Center for Public Opinion Research, University of Connecticut;
Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research; Berkeley, CA: Computer-Assisted
Survey Methods Program, University of California [distributors], 2005.